Karachi violence emblematic of Pakistan’s instability

All is not well in the City of Lights, as Pakistan’s major metropolis, Karachi, is known. The murder of a senior political party worker on May 18 underscores the unrest wracking the city in the wake of recent elections, and showcases the tendency of political disputes in the nation’s financial center to be played out in a violent manner.

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister-in-waiting, says he plans to prioritize setting the country’s economy in order, but he will have a hard time doing so if Karachi, the country’s financial engine and the source of nearly 60 percent of its revenue and home to a tenth of its 180 million-strong population, remains paralyzed due to politically-driven chaos.